1 And it came about in the fourth year of King Darius, that the word of the Lord came to Zechariah on the fourth day of the ninth month, the month Chislev.2 Now they of Beth-el had sent Sharezer and Regem-melech to make a request for grace from the Lord,3 And to say to the priests of the house of the Lord of armies and to the prophets, Am I to go on weeping in the fifth month, separating myself as I have done in past years?4 Then the word of the Lord of armies came to me, saying5 Say to all the people of the land and to the priests, When you went without food and gave yourselves to grief in the fifth and the seventh months for these seventy years, did you ever do it because of me?6 And when you are feasting and drinking, are you not doing it only for yourselves?7 Are not these the words which the Lord said to you by the earlier prophets, when Jerusalem was full of people and wealth, and the towns round about her and the South and the Lowland were peopled?8 And the word of the Lord came to Zechariah, saying,9 This is what the Lord of armies has said: Let your judging be upright and done in good faith, let every man have mercy and pity for his brother:10 Do not be hard on the widow, or the child without a father, on the man from a strange country, or on the poor; let there be no evil thought in your heart against your brother.11 But they would not give attention, turning their backs and stopping their ears from hearing;12 And they made their hearts like the hardest stone, so that they might not give ear to the law and the words which the Lord of armies had said by the earlier prophets: and there came great wrath from the Lord of armies.13 And it came about that as they would not give ear to his voice, so I would not give ear to their voice, says the Lord of armies:14 But with a storm-wind I sent them in flight among all the nations of whom they had no knowledge. So the land was waste after them, so that no man went through or came back: for they had made waste the desired land.

1 Et factum est in anno quarto Darii regis, factum est verbum Domini ad Zachariam, in quarta mensis noni, qui est Casleu. 2 Et miserunt ad domum Dei Sarasar et Rogommelech, et viri qui erant cum eo, ad deprecandam faciem Domini : 3 ut dicerent sacerdotibus domus Domini exercituum, et prophetis, loquentes : Numquid flendum est mihi in quinto mense, vel sanctificare me debeo, sicut jam feci multis annis ? 4 Et factum est verbum Domini exercituum ad me, dicens : 5 Loquere ad omnem populum terr, et ad sacerdotes, dicens : Cum jejunaretis, et plangeretis in quinto et septimo per hos septuaginta annos, numquid jejunium jejunastis mihi ? 6 et cum comedistis et bibistis, numquid non vobis comedistis et vobismetipsis bibistis ? 7 numquid non sunt verba qu locutus est Dominus in manu prophetarum priorum, cum adhuc Jerusalem habitaretur ut esset opulenta, ipsa et urbes in circuitu ejus, et ad austrum, et in campestribus habitaretur ? 8 Et factum est verbum Domini ad Zachariam, dicens : 9 Hc ait Dominus exercituum, dicens : Judicium verum judicate, et misericordiam et miserationes facite, unusquisque cum fratre suo. 10 Et viduam, et pupillum, et advenam, et pauperem nolite calumniari : et malum vir fratri suo non cogitet in corde suo. 11 Et noluerunt attendere, et averterunt scapulam recedentem, et aures suas aggravaverunt ne audirent. 12 Et cor suum posuerunt ut adamantem, ne audirent legem, et verba qu misit Dominus exercituum in spiritu suo per manum prophetarum priorum : et facta est indignatio magna a Domino exercituum. 13 Et factum est sicut locutus est, et non audierunt : sic clamabunt et non exaudiam, dicit Dominus exercituum. 14 Et dispersi eos per omnia regna qu nesciunt : et terra desolata est ab eis, eo quod non esset transiens et revertens : et posuerunt terram desiderabilem in desertum.